Polonium Definition & Meaning

Origin of Polonium

From Medieval Latin Polōnia Poland (the native country of Pierre and Marie Curie, the element's discoverers)

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
New Latin Polonia (“Poland")

From Wiktionary

After removing the uranium, it was found that the bismuth separated with a very active substance - polonium; this element was afterwards isolated by Marckwald, and proved to be identical with his radiotellurium; that the barium could be separated with another active substance - radium; whilst a third fraction, composed mainly of the rare earths (thorium, &c.), yielded to Debierne another radioactive element - actinium, which proved to be identical with the emanium of Giesel.
Examples include americium 241 used in smoke detectors and Polonium 210 used in dust detection and anti-static devices.
Their shape after to companies in required to excite elements polonium and radium.
Working together, Marie and her husband Pierre, discovered the chemical elements radium and polonium.
Marckwald (Ber., 1903, 36, p. 2662) showed that the Joachimsthal pitchblende yields tellurium and a minute quantity of the strongly radioactive polonium which is precipitated by bismuth (see Radioactivity).

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